What I Learned From Steve Jobs

I’ll admit it. I’m a major Steve Jobs wantrepreneur. In the past week, given all of the dramatic changes at Google and Hewlett-Packard, and thinking about the turmoil that exists within Microsoft, I couldn’t help but think that there’s only one man in tech that is unstoppable. I was wrong.

But it’s no exaggeration to say that Steve Jobs is the most important person in technology. The history books in another decade may even put Jobs at the top of the best business people lists. And he’s been a true inspiration to pretty much every “technologist” I know, Mac and PC customers alike. For me, it’s not in a “this is why I got into computers” kind of way – that spot sadly may be held by the creator of the Toshiba laptop or whoever designed the first Sesame Street game for DOS (one of my earliest childhood computer memories) – instead, Jobs represents taking advantage of all the possibilities and potential of computing. Most importantly, he embodies and has led with the attitude, “you only live once, so you might as well make it count.” Everyone in every business could learn a bit from that.

So it’s incredibly disappointing to see Steve Jobs step down from running Apple. He’s technology’s Michael Jordan, if MJ would have also won an Oscar for Space Jam. Or music’s Bob Dylan, with an actual contemporary comeback. He’s Neil Armstrong.

And even though he’s leaving, we will benefit from years of amazing product execution thanks to the people, infrastructure and DNA he’s left with the company. The products he’s given us will stand the test of time, and at least for the next several years continue to gain tremendous market share and be loved by many. Beyond today’s portfolio of products, Steve has left us with brilliant lessons on how to build amazing technologies and companies.

What would Steve Jobs do?

The Steve Jobs legacy, more than anything, is the story of overcoming market forces and extremely competitive factors to build the largest and possibly most important company in the world. Sorry, Groupon. Steve Jobs has taught us you can always fight back once you’re behind, that up is the new down. He taught us that the way to build the best value for customers is to get amazing people together, push them, and create incredible products. Given how important technology is in our everyday lives, this is a surprisingly rare combination. Steve Jobs took this to the limits, and it paid off for customers, employees, and investors in spades. And by spades I mean 80X growth in the past 15 years.

Apple teaches us that we can have delightful, intuitive and emotional experiences with the technology that we use. It teaches us that quality doesn’t have to be subjective if perfection is the goal. Apple serves as a reminder to all of us to constantly strive to ask, “What’s the right way to do this?” Across product development, customer support, openness, distribution, and user experience, every potential outcome has a wide range of options. Why not go for the one that is the most satisfying, not the one that’s easiest? To do so, you must build a company and culture around performing at its peak.

Steve Jobs was famous for saying, “Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” For all new hires coming to work at Box.net, we go through an extensive onboarding process that helps educate people on the history of the company, what we do today, and where we’re going. Once I flash this quote in the presentation, the room tends to get silent as they’re thinking about the meaning of this text to them. It’s true: most people haven’t been in environments that push them to the limits, for better or worse. We’re not often challenged, and we don’t often take it upon ourselves to challenge others. This is what creates the status quo, whether it’s in technology, services, retail, or fashion.

Creating a culture and organization where people not only do what’s right for customers, but do it in the most elegant and ‘excellent’ way is a defining characteristic of Apple, but one that can applied anywhere. And it tends to show up everywhere when you live by it. Go into an Apple store, and you’re nearly unequivocally greeted by a happy face. When you visit Apple.com, every pixel is perfectly placed. When you unwrap your iPad for the first time, it’s like you’re taking a journey into the future.

We all have the ability to create excellence. And frankly, it’s a lot more fun when we do. Crap is less fun, less inspiring, less motivating, and less rewarding. And if at any point you stop doing pursuing excellence, just ask yourself, ‘what would Steve do?’

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